


Changes

by kenporusty



Series: Wizards At Play [3]
Category: New Zealand Actor RPF, The Almighty Johnsons RPF, Young Wizards
Genre: Another Young Wizards crossover, Dean is a jerk, Emmett is a wizard, Gen, No real ships here, The origination of "Don't be an Anders", but if you squint you can see some vague Ben/Dean, not you dd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-06
Updated: 2013-06-06
Packaged: 2017-12-14 02:49:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/831843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenporusty/pseuds/kenporusty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thanks to Jared, Emmett is put into a pinch and has to tell some of his Almighty Johnsons castmates about his wizardry.</p><p>Dean isn't the kindest, but eventually comes around.</p><p>(This is based upon Diane Duane's Young Wizards series. If you haven't read the books, you should! They're fabulous!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Changes

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work of fiction and fantasy, I don't mean any defamation of character with this, and I definitely don't profit from these works.
> 
> Set as of season 3 filming.

Emmett knew since he was a teenager that he was different.

Not just that he was taller, and a little more awkward than other, or that he was really good at acting, or that he could charm his way into anyone’s life.

He knew he was different because of the book with the green cover that sat on his bookshelf. The one that started everything. The book with the green cover that refused to let Emmett pull his hand away in the consignment store in downtown Wellington. The book that said it was a collection of fairy tales and myths from various cultures, but when Emmett opened the cover (the cover opened on its own really), he wasn’t faced with a normal table of contents. Just a small block of text that seemed to hover and shimmer in anticipation of being read.

__

_“In Life’s name and for Life’s sake…”_

He read the text to himself as he walked through the shop, waiting for his parents to find what they wanted. He was no longer interested in any of the clothes and or books. He read about spells and the magical language that everything in the universe understands. There was a chapter on the One and the Powers That Be that built the universe, and the Lone Power who had Its own reasons for creating and releasing death and entropy into the myriad home worlds.

He read that the purpose of wizards was to fight this entropy, to slow it down, to prolong the life of the universe so that all who do live and who will live, sentient or not, animate or inanimate, will have a universe.

He read that everyone offered a manual in some form, and those who take the Oath would undergo an Ordeal, a trial, usually fighting against the Lone Power Itself. He gulped, paid for the book, and wondered why he hadn’t read the warnings first.

Instead, he studied the wizardly language, the Speech, to try to gain an advantage.

His Ordeal was terrible, but he survived.

****

“So have you told anyone else?” Jared asked, pushing his sunglasses up to rest in his hair.

Emmett stared, the golden strand of the spell still dangling from his fingers, writhing like a snake, itching to be used.

“Uh, my parents,” he quickly dropped the spell back into his Manual and snapped it shut. “You’re not freaked out?”

Jared shook his head and leaned against the wall, “I know a few people in Auckland. So you told your girlfriend?”

“No, not yet.”

“You ever used a spell to, you know,” Jared insinuated, his eyebrows creeping towards his hairline.

Emmett’s eyes widened at the implication, “what? No! Well, maybe once, and we may be friends, but I’m in no position to discuss this with you.”

Jared laughed, “Well, finish what you’re doing; we’re going out with Dean and Ben for dinner and drinks.”

“When was this decided?” Emmett looked surprised.

“While you were hiding in here after they called it a wrap for the day. Got something better to do?”

“I’m kind of on active status. Just make up some excuse for why I can’t come.” Emmett’s face shifted to a frown.

“You’re 25, you can tell them yourself. Or you can come out in the open to them. I’m sure at least Ben would find it cool as hell. Dean might want to take your picture mid-spell, which just leads right into creepy stalker territory, but that’s Dean for you.”

Emmett sighed and reopened his Manual, setting it on the table and pulled out his phone, “I really hate this planet sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but I hate it that wizards have to hide in plain sight.” He typed out a text message with an exaggerated sigh.

“There, I’m sick for the night. Now go on, enjoy getting coma’d.”

Jared laughed and slipped from Emmett’s trailer on the set. He heard the door lock soundly behind him and sauntered to where Ben waited, thankfully with a buttoned up shirt. Dean waited by Ben. A little too close. Ben’s hand lingered on Dean’s shoulder a bit longer than was proper. Jared smirked at the quick shuffling as he approached. He shrugged widely.

“Says he feels like shit, sorry guys. Now, as he told me, let’s go get coma’d.” Jared hated the lie as much as Emmett did.

Wizards can’t lie. At least not in the Speech.

When you start messing with the fundamental building blocks of the universe, it gets tetchy about specifics.

Emmett stared at the spell diagram on the page of his Manual. It writhed still, wanting to be pulled from the page, to be used, to be put to work.

His name. His name hadn’t changed much in the past few years. It shifted with his relationship status and his acting jobs, but it was mostly stable. Now a variable flared, drawing his attention. A change suffix. Of course, the change would not be immediately visible, and what it was in reference to might change today, might change tomorrow, and might change three years from now.

Still, the fact that it was there bothered him.

“Nothing to be done,” he sighed, grabbing the spell and once more pulling it from the page, feeling delight ripple through his arm from the spell.

He dropped it, stepped inside the softly glowing circle, sealed it with the Wizard’s Knot - a figure eight shape that knotted both ends of the spell together - and began to read. Silence settled in his trailer as everything, animate and non, listened to the words in the Speech, eager to help the wizard achieve his goal.

With a loud pop, the world went out, and he stood on the south slope of the High Peak of Mount Cook. As he shook off the slight fatigue from the transport, he turned to greet the other wizards waiting for him.

“Dai stihó, cousins,” he grinned at the three familiar faces of those gathered. “Let’s get started, shall we?”

****

Jared felt good. Very good. Between a delicious dinner and the alcohol flowing through his veins, he felt quite loose.

Judging by how Ben and Dean were leaning close to one another, foreheads pressed together, talking together despite the thumping of the music in the club, they were feeling just as loose. Jared cleared his throat loudly and smiled at how the other two jumped and smiled sheepishly at him.

“Remember I’m here?” Jared smiled sloppily.

“Yeah, right, sorry. Dean was filling me in on some of the stories from filming down in Wellington.” Despite being completely fairly drunk, Ben managed to look normal.

Dean, however, had dark circles under his eyes and a glassy look.

“I think it’s time to go back, guys.” Jared, always the voice of reason, even while drinking.

“No way, man, we’re just getting started! Those dwarves did a wonder for my alcohol tolerance!” Dean protested, draping his torso over the table, almost knocking over a half-full glass of beer.

“Don’t care. Emmett should be back soon, and I want to grill him.”

“Wait, I thought he said he was sick?” Dean fumbled for his phone. Ben pulled it from his pocket for him before he fell over.

“Shit,” Jared suddenly felt more sober.

“Yeah, his message says he’s sick. We should go to his trailer and make him feel better! I have a key!” Dean proclaimed.

“I think you need to be cut off,” Ben said affectionately. “Why would he lie about being sick if he was going somewhere? He could just tell us.”

So, Ben wasn’t as drunk as Jared thought, but Dean clearly was three sheets to the wind.

“Emmett is a damn liar,” Dean giggled.

Make those six sheets. Clearly, the drinking sessions with the dwarves did nothing for his alcohol tolerance.

Jared chewed his lip, “I can’t say any more. You have to talk to him about that.”

“Right. We should get drunkie home, yeah? Help me, would you?” Ben stood up shakily and picked up the smaller man easily, setting him on his feet, and pressing a hand to his lower back. Dean, failing to reach Ben’s shoulders, instead slung an arm around his waist and leaned heavily against his on-screen grandfather.

Jared came onto the other side and placed a hand on Dean’s shoulder. Dean leaned affectionately into Jared’s touch.

“I love you, Ty!” Dean purred.

“I hate you, too, Anders. You’re going to feel like shit tomorrow morning, you know.” Jared laughed, waving a few girls away.

Together they stumbled into a taxi and went back to the empty set. Jared was sure Emmett would come back to his trailer before going back to his apartment.

He didn’t mean to let the cat out of the bag, albeit vaguely, and he hoped Emmett forgave him.

****

Emmett appeared again in his trailer and dropped onto the sofa. The clock read a time entirely too late, and he felt entirely too exhausted from the group spelling. He should go back to the apartment, but no one would blame him if he slept at the empty lot.

He was trying to sleep, arm thrown over his face, when a loud pounding at his door jolted him awake.

“The fuck?” He asked no one in particular, and didn’t expect an answer.

Jared looked at him with Dean and Ben hovering close behind, he didn’t smile, in fact, he looked a little shame-faced.

“What the hell did you do, Jared?” Emmett asked, trying not to let the exhaustion turn into crankiness.

“Got a spell to sober up Deano? He went a little crazy,” Jared jerked his thumb at the short actor between him and Ben.

“It wouldn’t be worth the power outlay, and I can’t tap his energy without his consent,” Emmett frowned. “This all you came over for? To ask to sober up our costars? And why are we talking about this so openly?”

“I might have possibly let something slip that you weren’t sick this evening.”

Jared earned himself a scowl, “you told them?”

“No, I’m going to let you tell them.”

“Tell us! Wait, tell us what?” Dean chimed in.

“Not tonight, not while they’re like this. This is something people must be sober to hear. It’s unbelievable enough for sober people, the drunks will likely not remember. Or tell everyone.”

“Would telling everyone be so bad? Do you think people would think of you any less if you told them you’re a wizard? If Dean or Ben told them, they’d likely think they’re just telling stupid stories again.”

“Is that who I am? A stupid story? A bedtime tale to be kept in the dark? Don’t be a non-conformist, kids, or you’ll be a wizard.” Emmett was letting the cranky take over and he didn’t care.

“That’s not what I meant, you know that.”

“Do I? You always assume, Jared. You and the drunken duo should just leave. If I want to tell them, I will tell them on my own time.”

“The only really drunk one here is Dean, you know.” Ben chimed in. “I want to know what this is all about.”

Somehow, the three of them had found their way into Emmett’s trailer, Dean sprawled out on the sofa.

“I’m just too exhausted to deal with this now, Jared.” Emmett’s tone came close to whining.

“You’re resisting change. You were the one complaining earlier that you hated having to live in secret.” Jared tried to be a voice of reason.

“What? Is Emmett gay? Why would we give a shit about that? Might disappoint some of the fan girls, though,” Ben said, sounding entirely too much like Olaf.

“What? No, I’m not gay.” Emmett squeaked and rubbed his eyes with his fingers.

“Then what’s this big, dark secret that must be told while sober?”

“It’s… it’s nothing.”

“So repeatedly saving the world in little ways, in little increments is nothing? Going out of your way to fight off the heat death of the universe is nothing? Being able to travel in the blink of an eye is nothing? Great way of thinking of your power, I’m sure the Lone One is loving this right now,” Jared gave Emmett a stern look.

“Powers That Be, Jared!”

“I told you, I know some of your kind here in the city, and a few more in Wellington, and I know if any of them heard you right now, they would try and kick your ass. Quit resisting change, Emmett.”

Change. That change suffix, the one that Emmett agonized over earlier. He sighed, realizing that this must be why the suffix appeared.

Emmett ran a hand through his hair and sighed again, “Ben, you’re sober enough, I’m assuming.”

“Hard to get me three sheets,” Ben nodded, picking Dean up and sitting next to him.

“And Jared, of course, you’re sober enough. Dean, are you sober enough to pay attention?”

Dean nodded, glassy-eyed still.

“No you’re not. Are you sober enough to give your consent for me to use a little bit of your energy to sober you up? This is a one-time deal, got it? I won’t go around sobering your asses up just because I can.” Emmett chewed his lip, reaching into his claudication for his green-bound manual.

“I know that book! Good fairy stories in there!” Dean chimed.

Emmett flipped to a page more than halfway back. “I’m asking you for consent to use some of your energy.”

“Uh, you got it?” Dean said, not sounding wholly certain.

“Close enough, now don’t move.”

Emmett sat cross legged on the floor in front of Dean and pressed his hand against his upper belly, reading a spell from his Manual, using what he knew of Dean for his name: in his thirties, an actor, photographer, painter, the shortest of the cast, and from Auckland. The sound of silence fell again, and Ben turned a confused look to Emmett. Jared leaned against the counter across from the sofa and smiled. Emmett continued to read, knitting his brows at some of the variables. Finally, he reached the wizard’s knot, spoke it and the spell dissolved.

Dean sat up straighter and blinked, eyes no longer glassy, clearly more sober than before.

“What the fuck just happened?” He asked.

“I sobered you up.” Emmett smiled.

“How? How did we get to your trailer?”

“You were really trashed, weren’t you?” Ben asked.

“I must have been, but I don’t feel hung over, what’s going on?” Dean put his head in his hand.

“Now that everyone is sober enough, I think I need to tell you guys something.” Emmett stood up, still holding his Manual.

“We already established you’re not gay, and if you were, we wouldn’t give a shit about it.” Ben said wisely.

“Thanks, Olaf,” Emmett laughed.

“Good to hear you laugh again,” Jared said. “Sorry I picked a fight with you.”

“I think I needed it, sorry I got cranky.”

“Sure you’re not gay? You’re being quite lovey-dovey there,” Dean quipped.

Jared looked pointedly at the two on the sofa. Dean squirmed slightly.

“I’m better than gay. I’m a wizard.”

Dean stifled a laugh, “like Harry Potter?”

Emmett frowned, “nothing like that. Like I just sobered your ass up, and you heard me speaking something, I know you did. I was using the Speech, the language of wizards. We’re here to help slow down the death of the universe.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me, right? Good joke, Emmett,” Dean scoffed, clapping sarcastically.

“Whatever you gave me to sober up, it worked, thank you, but you don’t need to lie about it.”

“Dean, don’t be an Anders,” Ben said softly, elbowing him in the side.

“I’m not being an Anders, and by that I’m assuming you mean asshole.” Dean looked at Ben’s concern and Jared’s frown then to Emmett’s disappointment. “Jesus, you’re all in on the joke. Well, whatever, I will keep your wizardry a ‘secret’ then,” Dean used air quotes around the word ‘secret.’

“We all agreed we’d be supportive to whatever Emmett had to say.” Jared gave Dean a withering look.

“You guys might have. I was drunk off my ass until a few minutes ago. That was a nice trick, Odin. I need to go home, I’m tired as shit for some reason.”

“Backlash of me using your energy to sober your fucking ass up, you prick,” Emmett sniped at the retreating form of Dean O’Gorman.

“I’m sorry that didn’t go as planned.” Jared laid a hand on Emmett’s shoulder and gave him a sympathetic, if sad, smile.

“It’s alright,” Emmett shrugged Jared’s hand off. “It’s late and I’m fucking wiped.”

Emmett didn’t look at Jared or Ben, even as Ben caught him in a crushing hug.

“Hey, I believe you. We’re going to sit down and have a chat sometime. I have a list of places I want to visit.” Ben said softly. “Don’t mind Dean, you should know that he gets like this sometimes. Give him a day and a half and he’ll come round, yeah?”

Emmett limply hugged Ben, “yeah, sure. Have a good night guys. I’m going to go pass out now.”

He locked the door after them and fell back onto the sofa, calling his manual over again, and opening it up to his name.

The change suffix blinked, waiting for something.

“Yeah? I won’t try to change anytime soon. There’s a reason we’re _sevarfrith_ ,” he snapped the book shut and ignored it as it dug its weight into his chest, insulted.

Emmett was asleep within seconds.

****

Dean avoided Emmett for the next week when he could. He was cordial enough when they filmed and needed to be civil, but as soon as they wrapped, the scene finished, or they took a break, Dean was off-limits to Emmett. The younger saw Dean watching him with a frown or confused look.

****

“Hey, can we talk?” Dean said softly.

Emmett looked up, closing cover of the green-bound Manual.

“What do you want,” Emmett couldn’t keep the frostiness from his voice.

“I just,” Dean scrubbed the back of his head with his hand. “I wanted to apologize for being a complete Anders the other night, and for being a total dick to you this week.”

“Not sure I’m ready to forgive you.”

“I want to see your wizardry. I know you’ve been showing Ben and Jared some and they’ve told me about it. I think if I see it, I’ll start to believe a little more.”

Emmett chewed his lip, and opened the Manual.

“I need to get some information about you before we do anything. Name? Age?”

“Dean Lance O’Gorman, 36,” Dean said, sitting next to Emmett, answering questions as he asked them. Emmett’s eyebrows went up at some of the results, but laughed them off.

After five minutes, Emmett nodded and looked over at Dean.

“What do you want to see?”

“Surprise me,” Dean smiled.

“Alright,” Emmett stands up and pulled the glowing string that is Dean’s name, leaving it hanging in the air.

Dean’s eyebrows went up and he walked around the glowing figure, all Arabic-styled curls and loops, graceful, foreign, and yet Dean felt if he looked hard enough he could understand it.

“What is this? It feels familiar, almost like I can read it.”

“That should feel familiar it’s your name in the Speech, the wizard language.”

Dean reached his hand out, then looked questioningly at Emmett, who was busy scribbling notes in his book.

Emmett caught Dean’s eye, “yeah, go ahead. You won’t hurt it.”

Dean touched the glowing letters, each letter he touched lit up and flashed. Some expanded, and some contracted, waiting for an addition or change.

“Feels like touching spider webs,” Dean frowned and shook his hand.

“Hmm? Oh yeah, it’s pretty unsettling at first, but you get used to it quick enough.” Emmett looked up and smiled.

Emmett pulled a long, complicated looking strand from his Manual, dropping it carefully on the floor of the trailer. He pulled the string of Dean’s name from the air, fitting it into the empty socket of the spell.

“Stand in that circle and don’t move. I’ll let you know when it’s safe.” Emmett smiled, knotted the spell closed and began to read, relishing in the silence of the universe listening to a spell.

Dean looked alarmed and chewed his lip, but didn’t move until in a flash and a bang of displaced air they stood in the blackness of space, watching the terminator creep across the surface of the earth.

“You can move around now. Don’t step on the spell lines, and keep within the perimeter,” Emmett said, enjoying Dean’s surprised face.

Dean looked like he was about to faint.

“That’s Earth. We’re standing in space,” Dean stepped out of the circle and tentatively towards the perimeter of the bubble of air.

“That’s New Zealand down there,” Dean spoke with an air of disbelief.

“Yes,” Emmett came up next to Dean.

“And you can do this whenever you want?”

“There’s rules, and repercussions. You pay for the energy you use. I’ll likely be pretty dead to the world for a while after this. It’s even worse for longer hauls. Kids don’t have trouble with these kinds of spells. The youngest are always the most powerful. My power levels are pretty low right now, and probably won’t go up.”

“That’s pretty lame.”

“I would say the trade off is pretty spectacular. I’ve been places you couldn’t fathom; I’ve met people your brain would write off as a hallucination. When I first gained my powers, I had to face off with a shadow of the Power that created death.”

“Emmett, I’m sorry I was such an Anders,” Dean pulled his taller costar into a hug.

Emmett laughed, “It’s in your nature. Let’s get going, yeah?”

Dean and Emmett stepped back into their respective circles, Emmett speaking a few words and in a flash, they were back in the trailer. Dean caught Emmett as he sagged and eased him back down onto the sofa.

“Backlash, it’s a bitch,” Emmett smiled, “thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”

“Emmett, thank you. Yeah, see you tomorrow.”

Dean shut the door quietly and smiled at Jared and Ben standing not far off.

“Changed your mind?” Ben asked.

“Definitely. Now let him sleep. Though the next time he takes me to space, I’m bringing my camera.”

Emmett fumbled for his Manual, checking his name again.

The change suffix moved. No longer on his name, but on Dean’s, and not in the way he suspected it would. Not a change of mind about wizardry, or a change of mentality towards Emmett or the art.

No, the change suffix now attached itself to Dean’s talents.

Wizardly talents.

“That’s fucking weird.”

No, Dean wasn’t listed in the directory.

“Tomorrow, I’ll check it tomorrow.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sevarfrith = a syllabic acronym meaning that Wizards on a given world must hide their wizardry.
> 
> I'm having fun playing with wizardry in various fandoms and situations.
> 
> And it looks like this one might be multiparter, but I don't know yet.
> 
> You can always message me on my [tumblr](http://kenporusty.tumblr.com) if you want to see anything either in this universe or another. I love prompts.
> 
> (yes, I'm assuming Emmett has a girlfriend in this. I'm too lazy to look up his relationship status)


End file.
